[Zebra_Fact_Man]

I cannot believe I am actually reading a thread dedicated to this. This is by far one of the most ridiculous proposals I have ever heard, and to top that off, I can't believe that so many people are in favor of it!

Maybe it's just a Michigan thing, but the pits seem to be kind of a hang out area for almost 50% of the teams here in my area, and it would be IMPOSSIBLE to get from point A to point B in a timely matter without this practice. Heck, I have difficulty navigating the pits as an individual!

But lets go over and examine the proposed reasons for the heck of it:
1) It's not necessary - To be determined.
2) It's arrogant - This is a competition, isn't it? Although, I'd use the words "confident" or "certain" before "arrogant".
3) It's obnoxious - Is yelling "fire" or "rape" or "I surrender" obnoxious? It get's the job done, which is what its supposed to do.
4) It's rude - not really. it is THE MOST efficient way to tell all people within ear's range that there is a robot headed their way and to get out of the way.
5) It creates excessive noise. - Music in the grand stands is excessive noise. Pit announcements are sometimes excessive noise. Yelling robot is useful noise.
6) It startles bystanders - maybe if the bystanders are elementary school children who've never been to a robotics competition before.
7) It turns off the general public - how? EVERY group of people that has visited my team in the pits, when hearing "robot", immediately knows how to respond. I have NEVER heard a visitor comment negatively toward this practice.
8) It starts a chain reaction of other teams yelling for no apparent reason - this statement assumes "for no apparent reason", which has yet to be proven. And if useful, this chain reaction is a good thing.
9) With repetition, it becomes white noise and loses all meaning - no it doesn't. If I yell robot, then get out of the way; here comes a robot! If robotless people yelled robot, THEN it would lose its meaning.
10) It does little to make anyone safer in any way, and may even create a hazard - this is simply false. It informs everyone within ear's reach, as stated before, that a robot's a coming. Prevents people from getting hit by a robot.
11) It gives teams a false sense of entitlement that others will drop everything to move out of their way - well they should. GP? We got a match and need to get somewhere and you don't. If you need to get somewhere with your robot, then we shouldn't be in you way either.
It's safety theater - I suppose. Oops. Oh well.

In short, if no one was in the way, you wouldn't need to yell robot. But it's simply not the case, and yelling robot gets the job done more efficiently and effectively than any other method.

TLDR; yelling robot tells everyone around you that you and your robot is coming and they need to get out of the way ASAP. Exactly what it's supposed to do, in the most efficient manner possible.